News

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) released the following statement after Senator Rob Portman (R-OH), Chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), released a report detailing how Obama Administration authorized Iranian access to the U.S. financial system despite assurances to the public and Congress that Iran would not be granted access:
 
“This report reveals that the Obama Administration misled Congress and the American people about going beyond the nuclear deal’s terms to grant Iran’s terror-sponsoring regime access to the U.S. financial system.
 
“Given that most foreign banks and companies wisely saw doing business with Iran under the nuclear deal as too risky during the Obama Administration, they are less likely to do any business with Iran now after President Trump has withdrawn from the nuclear deal and is reimposing U.S. sanctions.”
 
Background:
In March and May 2016, Rubio and Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL) repeatedly urged then-Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew to block Iranian access to U.S. dollars. In a June 2016 response, the Obama Administration’s Treasury Department misleadingly claimed to Congress: “To be clear, the U.S. Department of the Treasury is not working on behalf of Iran to enable Iranian access to U.S. dollars elsewhere in the international financial system, nor are we assisting Iran in gaining access to dollar payment systems outside the U.S. financial system. The administration has not been and is not planning to grant Iran access to the U.S. financial system.”